I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to medication delivery systems, and more particularly to cartridges and specially designed unit dose medication used for filling automated medication delivery systems.
II. Description of Prior Art
Medication in the form of pills is contained and delivered in a wide variety of forms, including bulk containers, prescribed dosage containers, and unit dose packages. While bulk containers and prescribed dosages containers hold a plurality of pills for use by the consumer, unit dose medication packages, or so-called "blister packs", hold a single pill or dose. Unit dose packages are typically constructed from a flat sheet of laminated paper and plastic which includes a thin plastic enclosure, or "blister", which holds the pill. These unit dose packages are advantageous for a variety of reasons. For example, multiple unit dose packages can be attached to one another in the form of a sheet and economically delivered in boxes. The airtight seal for each pill allows for longer storage of the medication for use over extended periods of time, and it prevents medical care personnel from having to touch the medication before it is delivered to a patient. This is especially important in situations where the medical care personnel are handling numerous types of medication, and where patients may have a hypersensitivity to certain medications.
Because of their relatively nonuniform shape, however, automated delivery of unit dose medication packages has been an elusive goal. Automated medication dispensing devices have been developed for certain forms of medication, namely the dispensing of single pills from bulk containers, such as my prior invention represented by U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,029, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In that device, single pills are retrieved from a bulk container by a suction probe that is capable of traveling along three axes. The shape of the probe and the individual pills makes retrieval by suction quite reliable. In theory, it is possible to retrieve a single unit dose package by suction, but only if the package is oriented so that a flat portion of the package is substantially perpendicular to the suction probe. Therefore, a bulk container having multiple, unusually oriented unit dose packages would not be a viable container for such medication if retrieval of single packages is desired.
Consequently, there is a broad need for the automatic dispensing of single unit dose medication packages, especially in connection with automated devices such as my prior patent mentioned above. One means of allowing for such automated dispensing is to provide a cartridge which houses a plurality of unit dose packages which are oriented in a manner to facilitate retrieval by suction or other means. The cartridge should be readily alignable and attachable within an automated delivery system so as to allow retrieval of unit dose medication packages, preferably without modification to any existing suction probe unit and without any other major functional and structural changes to the delivery system. The cartridges should be relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture by the medication supplier so that pre-filled cartridges may be provided to users of the automated delivery system. A bar code or other means of identifying the medication should be conveniently located on the cartridge so that the automated delivery system can correlate the particular medication type with a specific location within the automated delivery system.